Where: Pot Smoker BBQ, 340 Edgefield Road, North Augusta, SC 29841 – map www.thepotsmokerbbq.com This the monthly dinner meeting of the premier Miata Club in the CSRA. Come out and have some eats with fellow[...]

Location: The Outing Club in Aiken, SC. The Outing Club is located, appropriately enough, on Outing Club Rd which is off the 118 By-pass about 2 miles from USC Aiken. The entrance gate (33.595227, -81.762587)[...]

MCA Poker Run

The Bogarduses and Anita drove over to Atlanta together, but separately, through the remains of Tropical Storm Earl on Friday night. Most of the journey was spent at 55 MPH on I-20 with the windshield wipers slapping back and forth. Ask Anita about her exciting river fording.

Anita spent the night at Carol Arrington’s house, a friend of hers, and they made it to the MCA HQ first. Brian & Donna slumbered peacefully at the AmeriSuites in Alpharetta and were next to arrive. Not long after Brian & Donna got there, in pulled Stacey & Cindy who had driven over that morning. We all signed in together and each car was given two tickets to be used for the door prize drawing later in the day.

We had planned on running the thing together, but because of the way we were parked Anita made it out about 10 cars ahead of the Bogarduses and the Timmermans, who then didn’t see her again until about half way through the 110 mile loop. After about 5 turns (in the first 3 miles) we came across a white car parked on the side of the road. They jumped in line behind us, we were now a caravan of three. Their passenger/navigator figured it would be a lot easier to follow someone else, than try and keep up with the myriad twists and turns that had been written out on 5 full size pages. She was right. I counted later, there were 68 separate bits of instructions, phew! Cindy did a masterful job of keeping our group of cars on the right track.

A few miles after checkpoint #3 we pulled into gas station for a well deserved pit stop. Here we introduced ourselves to our white Miata caboose occupants, Chris and Amy Berard. Amy teaches school and Chris is going to school, to be a Chiropractor. They live in Marrietta just around the corner from Rspeed, which I’m not sure if this would be a blessing or a curse.

To give the Timmermans a break from the pressure, Brian & Donna agreed to lead from this point. After only a few more miles and lots of turns we caught up to Anita & Carol. They didn’t stay with us long as Anita pulled over for what we thought was to put the top up, it was lightly sprinkling, but she was just taking a driving break as she hadn’t taken one earlier when we did.

Shortly after that, we caught up with Ron Merritt from the Foothills Club. Ron was the tail end of a line of 7 Miatas. Donna breathed a sigh of relief as she folded up the directions, because now we could just follow these guys. This group was moving at a pretty good clip and Brian & Donna and Chris & Amy hung on for dear life. Stacey & Cindy stayed at saner speeds and soon dropped from our rearview mirrors. The nine of us ran 30 miles together and pulled into stop #4, the Buford Dam, together. After you got your card, there was a photographer taking your picture. He handed you his card and said go look at your photo on his site. I went and looked about a week later, can’t imagine he sold many. Just your standard 2 people waving from a car shot, the background wasn’t even interesting.

Due to traffic exiting checkpoint #4, the group was now reduced down to 2. The pressure was back on Donna & Brian to lead the last 16 miles back to the start. After some quick calculations to correct for mileage (we were almost 2 miles off at the 96 mile mark) our samba line of two cars made the last dozen turns together and pulled into the MCA parking lot.

Nobody had a real decent hand from our group, in fact Anita’s was â€œsooooo badâ€ that she has blocked out the painful memory of it. Brian & Donna ended up with a pair of eights, the exact same hand they had last year. MCA President Vince Tidwell (who is either a really wonderful guy or evil incarnate depending which side of the current Club/Magazine controversy you are on) was standing there and commented that if we combined the two, we would have 2 pair. I said no, we would have had four of a kind, but either way it wouldn’t have won, because the highest hand that day was a straight flush.

Lunch consisted of plenty of BBQ and all the fixin’s. The Master’s group, which included Chris & Amy (honorary members-for-a-day,) commandeered a table in the sunshine and set about to talk and eat the afternoon away.

About the time they got around to picking door prizes Anita & Carol had to go. Carol had to get back home before her babysitter started charging for overtime. Brian said just leave the tickets with him and if they draw her name he’d give her the prize. Wink, wink, nod, nod.

Sure enough, about 5 numbers into the prize drawings, up came one of Anita’s numbers. She won a Mequires detailing kit (Quick Detailer, Leather Conditioner & some Endurance Tire Shine.) Maybe another half dozen numbers later, up went Brian’s arm again. Anita’s other number had come up, this time it was good for a Hela halogen maplight (one of those goose neck things that plugs into the cigarette lighter.) Wouldn’t you know it, a few numbers later one of Brian’s number was picked. When his arm went up for the third time, good natured boos and hisses emanated from the crowd. Jealousy is an ugly thing. When you get a card from the Bogarduses this Christmas it will have a Red Miata on the front.

They also had a couple of plaques to give out. The good natured boos sounded again for a Peachtree member as he won a plaque for lowest VIN and highest mileage. He has a 1990 with a VIN in the low hundreds and over 375,000 miles on it. Apparently he has quite a collection of awards for these categories at home.

Finally, the Phinizy Moonlight Swamp Tour! The Sun, the Moon, and the Earth have finally come into the correct alignment so that we can enjoy a guided walk through the swamp on a warm, but not too warm, moonlit weekend night. Unless itâ€™s too cloudy or rainy.

Weâ€™ll meet at Larry and Rita Garners home (map) at 6:00PM for a light dinner of burgers and fixinâ€™s, then on to Phinizy at 7:30 where Anita Wylds has arranged for the showing of a video and a guided nature walk. In order to defray the food cost, everyone eating at Garners should pay Larry $5.00. Admission to Phinizy is free, but donations are gladly accepted.

Please RSVP by email or phone if you will be able to attend, by September 18. I will send out directions to all attendees a few days prior to the event.